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silver cord
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n.
1. In various systems of spiritual thought, the connection between one's physical body and one's spirit or astral body, conceived of as being spatially extended during out-of-body experiences and as being severed at the moment of death.
2. The emotional bond between a mother and her offspring.

[Translation of Hebrew hebel ha-kkesep, cord of silver, an expression of uncertain meaning in Ecclesiastes 12:6-7, possibly referring to the spinal cord as essential to life. Sense 2, after The Silver Cord, a 1926 play by American playwright Sidney Coe Howard (1891-1939) in which an overly possessive mother is depicted as damaging to the emotional lives of her grown sons.]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

    Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

    Indo-European Roots

    Semitic Roots

    The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.